Category: TV

Do you think dogs drinking lattes, people falling down open elevator shafts, or half naked men having very long slap fights are funny?  Do you have fond memories of the late great Leslie Nielsen seriously saying stupid stuff?  If your answers are yes to the questions above than you will love Angie Tribeca the new detective comedy on TBS staring Rashida Jones and created by Steve Carell.

Angie Tribeca (Rashida Jones), as you can guess, is a hard nosed detective that has issues with partners and authority, but she is the best detective on the force and is always able to solve the crime.  With the help of her partner of course.

With sooooo many cop shows on TV it is the perfect time to bring back the old school slapstick detective lampoon.  Plus it is refreshing in this age of more ‘realistic’ comedies ushered in by The Office to have something that is just out and out silly.  I understand coffee cups attached to fake dogs paws aren’t for everybody, but they makes me laugh, and it is nice to have someone else take a stab at the slapstick genre other than the Wayans brothers.

Rashida Jones who played the straight girl to Amy Poehler on Parks and Rec for so many years finally gets to let loose herself as Angie Tribeca, and her deadpan delivery of ridiculous dialog would make Leslie Nielsen proud.  The rest of the cast all bring their ‘A’ games as well quoting all their silly lines like they are of grave importance, or taking part in the multitude of pratfalls.

I love what I have seen of Angie Tribeca so far, but to be fair I also loved The Naked Gun.  If you don’t like slapstick comedy, Angie Tribeca will not be for you.  However, if you are like me and Leslie Nielsen is a personal hero you can watch the entire first season of Angie Tribeca right now On Demand, and you should.

After two years Sherlock is back on TV, but this time the gang is in the Victorian Era.  It was a fun idea to put the show back in its original period, but the story tried to be too clever for its own good.  So instead of the Master Detective figuring things out in a hyper-logical manner, stuff just kind of happens.

In this episode of Sherlock, when a bride comes back from the dead to kill her husband there is only one man smart enough to figure out what happened!  Sherlock Holmes.  Well, he kind of figures it out anyway.  He has a fair amount of help.

I think that the writers just kind of tried too hard with episode.  Everything is overly complicated, and the message felt a little forced.  Then when they try and link it up with the currant day show it looses steam trying to over explain everything which takes away from the case Sherlock and Watson are working on.  There was just too much ground to cover in ninety minutes.  That all being said, I still quite liked it, but mostly due to the fun setting and strength of Sherlock’s cast.

For the most part I was just happy to have Sherlock back on TV, and if you love the show like I do, I am sure you will feel the same way.  It is just a shame that Sherlock: The Abominable Bride couldn’t capitalize on the great premise, and instead ended up being one of the series’ weaker episodes.

Looks like the people over at SyFy have decided to keep up their trend of adding more Sci-Fi shows to the network named after them.  I am thrilled, and what is even better is that they are all unique!  Their new show The Expanse is the space version of an old school cold war noir thriller.  At least so far.

Humans have settled the solar system, and tensions are high between the U.N controlled Earth and the independent Mars.  The poor people that run the mines on the asteroid belt, known as ‘Belters’, are caught in between.  Someone is trying to make this cold war turn hot.  Can they find the people responsible tying to ignite hostilities between planets before the start of the first Solar War?

So if you think of Earth as the USA and Mars as Russia than the Belters are the Middle East.  Shows and movies that are able to use the past tell stories about the future always work well because we instantly understand them.  We have a shared history with a world that doesn’t exist, or exist yet anyway.  While a Worlds War would be interesting.  Watching people try and stop one could be even more thrilling.

This show has a large cast of characters, and so far they all seem to be playing their parts well.  I am happy to see Thomas Jane working in something noteworthy again.  He kind of got the short end of the stick with The Punisher movie.  Yes the movie was bad, but he was a great Punisher.  I hope this is the start of good things for him.

I very interested to see how this all plays out.  Will the Belters get out from under the thumbs of Earth and Mars?  Will there be a war?  Will the show end as well as it started?  Will something from totally out of left field happen?  Hopefully it will be fun to find out!